stigmata: "the presence of wounds on a person's body (usually a woman) in the places where Jesus is believed to have been injured at his crucifixion. Wound's usually appear on the palms of the person even though during his crucifixion, Jesus was either pierced through his wrists or his arms were tied to the crossbar."

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About this piece:

Why this theme you may wonder. Since the style and figure are also so very different from what I usually paint.

Well I feel that when you lose a loved one there will always be a wound. It never heals completely.Of course time does heal wounds but you continue to bleed even if it's just a little bit. It never goes away completely until the person is forgotten which is a thing that should never happen.

It's been almost a year since my grandfather passed away. As some of you know he was the one who taught me how to paint. I think about him all the time when I paint so I felt the need to paint another piece in his honor.

Of course there is also the religious aspect. My grandfather was a very religious man he really truly believed there is a god.
I admired that a lot about him since I'm still sceptic some of the time. I find it hard to believe things I haven't seen yet I find myself clinging to faith in hard situations.

This piece is in no way meant to be blasphemy I hope my explantion cleared this up.

Also I hope that for those of you who knows how this feels or have an anniversary of a loved one coming up that it touches your heart. Even if it's just a little bit.

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Technical talk:

I felt the need to create something a little more mature. I tried to mimic some of the old masters. Especially when it comes to colour and style of clothing.
A lot of study went into this and I learned a lot.

All of it was done in Painter X and photoshop CS with my Wacom Intuos. I modelled for the piece myself but it was a very blurry reference so it wasn't much help really.
A mirror was quite useful too.

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Since I've been ill I haven't had much time to thank you all personally for your time, kind words, critique and favourites.

So I just want to say sorry about that and I really really appreciate what you guys do to help me improve.
So thank you!

Emerald